Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah)

Ben Richardson

News about the Sundance Film Festival, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 1, 2015

Swag suites offering leather boots, knitted hats, portable cellphone chargers and more are abound at Sundance Film Festival, but are filled with social media stars, rather than Hollywood celebrities; these Instagrammers, Viners, YouTubers, and bloggers help merchandisers build their brand by posting pictures of the products. MORE

Jan. 30, 2015

Manohla Dargis Critic's Notebook assesses offerings at Sundance Film Festival; maintains that selection reaffirms festival's importance, despite early grumblings about quality of first several films shown. MORE

Jan. 29, 2015

Actor Adrian Grenier and about 100 of his friends gather at private dinner near Sundance Film Festival in recognition of his planned documentary about whale off California coast that emits frequency no other whale can hear. MORE

Jan. 27, 2015

Film distributors are buying small, independent movies at Sundance Film Festival in sales flurry unseen in years; video on demand helps fuel brisk sales. MORE

Jan. 25, 2015

Brooks Barnes Scene Stealers column discusses comedian Sarah Silverman's dramatic performance in I Smile Back, film adaptation of Amy Koppelman novel of same name, which will make its debut at Sundance Film Festival. MORE

Jan. 22, 2015

Shift in movie industry toward television is causing identity crisis of sorts at Sundance Film Festival, where most of movies that will be screened are likely to end up on video-demand system of some kind; festival has long been bastion for independent cinema and is trying to stay relevant as television's offerings become increasingly innovative. MORE

Jan. 21, 2015

Oct. 3, 2014

Stephen Holden reviews 2014 Sundance Film Festival Short Films, touring program of eight short films. MORE

Aug. 20, 2014

The two stars of the indie dramedy and its first-time director chat about relationship issues and keeping the movie’s big secret under wraps. MORE

Jan. 24, 2014

Manohla Dargis notes several significant movies that premiered at 30th annual Sundance Film Festival. MORE

Jan. 23, 2014

Many filmmakers, celebrities, publicists, agents and assorted hangers-on who descend upon Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival find that, due to limited number of hotel beds, they end up sharing rented group houses that quickly turn into party lairs. MORE

Jan. 15, 2014

John Cooper directs Sundance Film Festival, which opens its 30th installment in Park City, Utah; Cooper oversees programming of 121 films, culled from more than 4,000 submissions, and logistics of event that draws more than 45,000 to ski town and deploys 1,825 volunteers. MORE

Jan. 13, 2014

Movies at annual Sundance Film Festival have taken in about $160 million at domestic box office, down by one-third from $250 million in 2006; 2014 festival may take in even less at the domestic box office as digital-leaning distributors become the most active buyers. MORE

Jan. 10, 2014

Stuart Elliott Advertising column notes that the Sundance Institute has teamed with public relations agency Weber Shandwick to stream a daily, hourlong show called LiveAtSundance on Youtube. MORE

Dec. 28, 2013

Coming batch of nonfiction films to be featured at the Sundance Film Festival suggest that the race for the Oscar for best documentary will be characterized by a sharp turn toward athletics, big court battles and the evils of the Internet; ten of the 15 documentaries on the 2014 Oscar shortlist made their debut at Sundance. MORE

Dec. 27, 2013

Nicolas Rapold reviews 2013 Sundance Film Festival Short Films, program of prizewinning shorts from Sundance Film Festival. MORE

Dec. 5, 2013

Sundance Film Festival will showcase 117 movies in broad range of categories but 16 American-made features that compete for prizes are most likely to find wider distribution after festival. MORE

Mar. 4, 2013

Mar. 3, 2013

Jane Campion television mini-series Top of the Lake, the first TV show to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival, is well-received; reception is not surprising, given the changing landscape of television viewing. MORE

Jan. 27, 2013

Alexei Barrionuevo Big Deal column; real estate brokers in Park City, Utah, are seeking to connect with executive crowd at Sundance Film Festival by offering high-end events to publicize luxury properties, such as the 13,500-foot Dream House, on market for $21.9 million. MORE

Jan. 26, 2013

Samuel G Freedman On Religion column on Sister Rose Pacatte, Catholic film critic who is attending 2013 Sundance Film Festival; notes Pacatte's reviews, which she publishes in National Catholic Reporter, seeks to explain very different worlds of secular popular culture and religion to each other. MORE

Jan. 25, 2013

Manohla Dargis looks at highlights of 2013's Sundance Film Festival, noting that festival was distinguished by aesthetic ambition, number of female directors and abundant sexuality on screen. MORE

Jan. 22, 2013

Independent film business is healthier than in years, but vast majority of 119 feature films at 2013 Sundance Film Festival will not recoup production costs, much less profit; at least 28 movies were bought at 2012 festival by distributors, more than double number at 2008 festival, but they were exceptions to rule. MORE

Jan. 20, 2013

Jan. 19, 2013

Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez describes how he convinced David Sedaris to let him adapt his short story C. O. G. into a feature film, which will premiere at Sundance Film Festival. MORE

Jan. 17, 2013

This year's Sundance Film Festival, reflecting shifts in the independent film world, will feature more comedies and an overall lighter tone than in years past. MORE

Jan. 13, 2013

Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites documentary 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film is one of three films premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival that will explore rapidly evolving social movements. MORE

Jan. 13, 2013

Many directors experience hurt, frustration and fallback strategizing when their movies are not accepted into Sundance Film Festival, nation's pre-eminent independent film festival; some are using their rejections as way to promote their projects elsewhere. MORE

Oct. 7, 2012

Director Ava DuVernay, whose latest film Middle of Nowhere is a Sundance award winner, learned the craft of film-making while working as a publicist for prominent directors. MORE

Jan. 28, 2012

Manohla Dargis Critic's Notebook reflects that among the feature films presented at the somewhat lower-key 28th Sundance Film Festival, Benh Zeitlin's magical realist film Beasts of the Southern Wild created the most stir. MORE

Jan. 28, 2012

Disconnect between expectations going into the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the results coming out are particularly noticeable, as many high-profile movies are panned and several small films become critical and popular hits; general consensus is that there were a lot of good movies at the festival, but not any great ones. MORE

Jan. 26, 2012

HBO holds silent cocktail party at art gallery in Park City, Utah, to celebrate screening of Matthew Akers documentary Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present at the Sundance Film Festival. MORE

Jan. 21, 2012

Actress Melanie Lynskey, who has only played small wacky sidekicks during her 15 years in Hollywood, lands a true starring role in the Todd Louiso indie film Hello I Must Be Going, a feature developed for the Sundance film festival; highlights from other films released in the festival noted. MORE

Jan. 18, 2012

Technology has enabled independent filmmakers to complete movies more quickly than ever and screen them before the cultural moment they are examining has faded; as a result, the selection of films at this year's Sundance Film Festival reflect an unusually stark image of a broken nation and broken people. MORE

Jan. 14, 2012

Prominent directors Spike Lee and Stephen Frears are seeking to find distribution for their unsold films, Lee's Red Hook Summer and Frears' Lay the Favorite, at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; while many industry insiders say that this is sign that Hollywood has turned its back on smaller films, others assert that move reveals the directors' confidence in the festival marketplace. MORE

Jan. 8, 2012

Sundance Institute and the distributor New Video are making films that have been lost in the system available for streaming through variety of online services. MORE

Jan. 5, 2012

Yahoo, focused more intently on offering higher-quality entertainment, plans to announce a flurry of activities related to the Sundance Film Festival. MORE

Oct. 23, 2011

Director Drake Doremus relied heavily on improvised dialogue in his film Like Crazy, which won Grand Jury Prize for dramatic feature at Sundance Film Festival MORE

LOS ANGELES — The film festival arms race continues: Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, having established an offshoot of its signature Utah event in London, now plans to expand into the movie capital.
Sundance said on...

March 5, 2013, Tuesday

PARK CITY, Utah -- It's not subtle: in his forthcoming movie, ''This Must Be the Place,''Sean Penn resembles Robert Smith, the goth frontman of the Cure. The resemblance was intentional; the Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, known for the political...

Quvenzhane Wallis, 8, cemented her status as the It Girl of this year's Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night, as ''Beasts of the Southern Wild,'' starring Ms. Wallis as a poor Louisiana girl named Hushpuppy, took the festival's top grand jury...

January 22, 2012, Sunday

LOS ANGELES - It's not unusual for the subjects of documentaries to dislike what they see on screen, sometimes resorting to defamation lawsuits. A Florida time-share developer, David Siegel, is taking the unusual step of suing not over the content of...

''West of Memphis,'' a new documentary about the West Memphis Three murder case in Arkansas, will make its premiere out of competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, the festival's organizers said on Monday. ''West of Memphis'' is directed by...

Multimedia

From writer-director Eric Mendelsohn, the only two-time winner of the directing prize at Sundance (first for Judy Berlin, also starring Edie Falco) comes 3 Backyards, the story of three residents of the same town over the course of one seemingly per

It's been said (but unsubstantiated) that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in a standoff with the Bolivian military in 1908. In BLACKTHORN, Cassidy (Shepard) survived, and is quietly living out his years under the name James Blackthorn

Record high oil prices, global warming, and an insatiable demand for energy: these issues will be the catalyst for heated debates and positive change for many years to come. 2008 Sundance award-winning film FUEL exposes shocking connections between

Winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, "The Law In These Parts" is a gripping and revelatory investigation into the military legal system put in place by Israel over four decades ago to govern the occupied Palestinian territories -

Low budget film about three Irish Catholic brothers from Long Island dealing with temptation, fear and commitment. A serious, yet funny look at Generation X. Won Best Picture at the Sundance Film Festival.